As we mark National Agriculture Week, while agriculture, food, and related industries contribute roughly $1.420 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product, American farmers face daunting challenges in providing a stable and affordable food supply to our nation.

For this reason, and to ensure the strength of the farm safety net, bolster rural economies, and meet growing food challenges of American families, we must advance an updated and effective Farm Bill. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most recent Farm Sector Income Forecast reflects the acute need to act, reporting an anticipated 25.5% decrease in farm income from 2023, one of the largest year-to-year dollar reductions in net farm income on record.

Volatile commodity markets, rising crop inputs, limited trading markets, and a broad range of other issues continue to pressure the farm economy. As highlighted recently by the American Farm Bureau Federation, “Farmers and ranchers currently face the highest production expenses on record, in addition to increasingly complex local, state and federal regulations and growing competition from lower-cost foreign markets.”

The Farm Bill authorizes a broad array of programs integral to the ongoing viability of our nation’s agriculture producers and must reflect the most timely challenges in federal farm policy. Through my role on the House Committee on Agriculture, critical among the priorities I have heard resound include a strong farm safety net, risk management, conservation initiatives, innovative research, trade promotion, animal health, bioenergy, rural development, specialty crop competitiveness, uplifting the needy, as well as other vital policies for U.S. agriculture and our nation at large.

American farmers and livestock producers continue to face unprecedented challenges, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in February 2024 that our nation has lost over 140,000 farms in the last five years. If crucial Farm Bill policy issues are not updated promptly, it could have a devasting impact on the long-term farm economy of our nation, jeopardizing supply chain capacity and our ability to meet global food challenges.

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For this reason, timely and thorough consideration of an updated Farm Bill is needed, reinforcing efforts of the House Agriculture Committee to align the farm safety net with the needs of producers, expand market access opportunities, and uplift those in need. The U.S. food and agriculture sector has an economic output of over $8.6 trillion and cannot afford to wait. I ask my colleagues to join in strengthening American agriculture’s critical role in ensuring our nation’s food security through swift and sound Farm Bill passage.

Congressman Max Miller represents Ohio’s Seventh District, which includes Medina and Wayne counties as well as parts of Cuyahoga and Holmes counties. Miller serves on the House Agriculture Committee and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, for which he is also Chairman of the Environment Subcommittee. The Republican freshman members selected Miller as their representative to the Republican Steering Committee. He is a member of the Republican Study Committee, Main Street Caucus, and the Congressional Jewish Caucus. Before joining Congress, Miller spent six years in the Marine Corps Reserves and served in several senior positions for President Donald Trump.